back, calling me back, being able to get a hold of people.
we weren't able to finish going through what we needed to go through in order to be properly
prepared to either proceed with this case or not so i'd like to this is the second scheduled hearing
i'd like to request one additional hearing one additional continuance so that we continue
can continue to prepare and address the community's concerns and go back to them for another meeting
if they'd have us. In connection with that continuance request, I'd like to be designated
as attorney moving party. I made that request with my correspondence after the last proceeding,
but this matter had been scheduled for today. If the continuance is not to be granted, I would like
to withdraw the appeal, and then we would just start all over again at some point after we have
the information and we've been able to do the work, complete the due diligence that I think
is necessary uh we would rather not we rather you know not have to pay to refile again and appeal
again and everything um and just come back to the board for the same thing so i respectfully request
one additional continuance and again that i'd be designated as attorney moving party
and we'll get this back in front of you as soon as we can okay thank you uh any objections out
there to Attorney Moving Party? MI-2020-000093 6954 Keystone Street, Attorney Moving Party.
Any other requests for continuances or withdrawals?
Here I have Richard DeMarco, Attorney, available to request a
Okay, good afternoon, Mr. DeMarco. Please identify yourself for the record.
Good afternoon. Can you hear me?
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman. It's Richard DeMarco here. I'm on the 418 South 20th Street
appeal against L&I case. I represent the appellants against the permit. I did send an email to Sharon
an alert, trying to alert her as soon as I could of my continuance request. The request is based
on the fact that the, and it's the applicant's turn. We rested our case prior, but the applicant
on the permit is submitting additional evidence and testimony. What happened was inadvertently
Mike Phillips, who's the attorney for the applicant, did not forward me his exhibits
until yesterday at 1.45 p.m. Mr. DeMarco, if I could interrupt for one minute, if we could also
promote Mr. Phillips since he will want to respond. I'm sure. Thank you. Sorry to interrupt. Sorry.
I'm sure he will. So let me explain this to you. So this board knows I had a hearing with you,
another contested hearing with you yesterday. It was election day. I got the exhibits that
were submitted by the applicant that I received yesterday. I received for the first time
yesterday. And there are a number of technical exhibits in the submission that my expert has
not had time to review. So I am woefully unprepared to address those technical exhibits. One being
an opinion letter from their engineer, David Plant. And there are additional drawings,
technical drawings in the submission that I'm seeing for the first time. And it was yesterday
at 1.45 p.m. that I received these. So my request is as follows. The board does require
that any party, whether it be an appellant, an applicant, submit exhibits to the board
five days in advance. There are emails in the submission that are dated over the weekend.
So there are exhibits that the board has not received five days in advance. I submitted my
five days in advance. I submitted my exhibits five days in advance. I copied opposing counsel
exhibits five days in advance.
whenever I know that there is opposing counsel involved. Anytime I submit
documents to this board, I copy opposing counsel. That was not done. I'm not saying that Mike is a
bad guy in any way, shape, or form. That's not the case. What I am asking is a short, as short as
possible continuance to allow me to be prepared to address the exhibits that i have had less than 24
hours to prepare for including very technical documents this board can reschedule to as early
a date as it sees fit next week if i have to i mean i have three hearings next week but if
the board wants i'll be ready if the board could give me a date on this next week i'll be prepared
my expert will have have time to review the documents and and examine them and again i'm not
i'm not trying to unreasonably delay this matter i know it's been a long time this is sorry i hate
to interrupt here but we do have michael phillips and the law department's mr leonard reuter available
to speak in his behalf just to make sure we keep a manage of time thank you chair all right well
I'm finished.
I think we get the point, Mr. DeMarco.
Thank you.
So let's hear from Mr. Phillips.
Thank you.
Good afternoon, Chairman DiCicco, members of the board.
Michael Phillips, 1500 Market Street, Suite 3400.
Spell your last name and I'll swear you in, please.
P-H-I-L-L-I-P-S.
We're going to affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
Please proceed.
So I'll make this very brief. Mr. DeMarco is correct. I sent the exhibits in on Friday. My paralegal actually sent them in and inadvertently did not copy either Mr. DeMarco or Mr. Reuter on that.
As I went to supplement my exhibits yesterday to add an email and two other documents, I realized that Mr. DeMarco had not been copied the first time around and sent him the documents.
A continuance is not warranted by any means for the simple reason that this is an appeal against L&I.
And Mr. DeMarco and his clients have the burden of submitting affirmative evidence that the permit was issued improperly or that there was some irregularity in L&I's issuance of the permit.
They have rested their case and they've failed to show that.
The report that is being referenced is a one-page report from Jerry O'Plant Land Design, and just briefly to refresh your recollection of this, there was an argument at the last hearing, which was October 15, 2019, that the driveway ramp that leads to the accessory commercial parking in the basement of the property was not feasible as designed.
And Mr. Plant's report is a rebuttal to that.
Rebuttal evidence is actually an exception to the five-day rule.
And furthermore, all his report simply says is, this is, one, not a zoning issue, two,
the ramp's feasible, and three, streets departments signed off on it.
And the exhibits or streets departments sign off on it, the technical specifications of
the ramp, and a letter where what I just stated is set forth.
If Mr. DeMarco believes that this is a zoning issue, he could have put that in his case in chief, and it was his burden to show that this somehow violated the zoning code.
He did not do that. There is no reason to continue this and belabor this any longer.
We've gone on 18 months now, and this is really a simple issue.
All of the other documents that were either submitted way back in August and October of 2019, or they're emails from Mr. DeMarco's client herself, or matters of public records such as deeds that have been filed with respect to the property.
So we would encourage the board to hear this case, and at the end, I'm confident that you'll agree that the appellants have not satisfied their burden of proof to show that this permit was issued improperly.
Mr. Reuter?
Thank you, Leonard F. Reuter, R-E-U-T-E-R
for the City of Philadelphia.
Do we need to be sworn to the firm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Do we need to be sworn in?
We're in a firm, Leonard.
We're in a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth,
nothing but the truth.
Yes, thank you. I do.
The city's position on the continuance request is that we don't really have a position on that.
You know, we the city doesn't have an interest in particular in how quickly this is resolved.
So we'll we'll stay out of this particular question.
Thank you.
um i'm sure that was helpful oh yeah absolutely um all right
i would just may i mr chairman very briefly very briefly i know you have a long list um
i'll take a date next week uh there's clearly an admission that the documents were not given to me
it is a contested matter they are technical documents I mean I'll come back I'll be ready
when you list this thing go ahead we heard you oh we heard you all right Tanya do we have a date
for next week excuse me this is Sharon Saleta Mr. DeMarco are there parts of the hearing today that
you can go forward with and then maybe schedule a follow-up hearing limited to the documents that
you did not have in advance? I mean, you know, in full fairness, I have had Nancy Templeton's
expert report prior. There is cross-examination prepared for her. You know, I guess I don't think
that any of the 19 exhibits that I saw for the first time relate to additional documents that
she had submitted. So, you know, I could move forward with her testimony, but the other documents
clearly relate to the other witnesses. So in all fairness, I would be, I'm not unfairly surprised by
Ms. Templeton's report. If I could just interject and say one thing, I have no, I cannot fathom how
Mr. DeMarco could be surprised that we have an expert who was actually at the October 15th
hearing ready to testify as to the same exact point that this is not a zoning code issue and
that the ramp and curb cut are feasible. If Mr. DeMarco has evidence to show that that is not
accurate, it was his burden to submit that evidence and put that on in his case in chief.
Mr. Phillips, with all due respect, everybody calm down because we'll keep going back and forth
on whether or not we should do a continuance and it'll be next week before we get to that point.
So do we have a date, Tanya?
No, I'm keeping in mind that if this is continued,
if the entire hearing is continued,
it's likely to be lengthy.
And Ms. Sunkit can confirm that there will be no,
it will not be able to be scheduled for next week.
Is that correct?
Correct, it would be in my suggestion, a special listing.
And we would have to work together with the board
to figure that out. And because there's an appeal against LNI and notice is not required to the
public, we can come up with a date and I can notify the party. I want to ask you if we could
do a special. That would be helpful. So if we don't have a date, that means you'll speak to
both parties, Mr. Phillips and Mr. DeMarco? Yes, Chair. Once I speak to you all to determine a
date okay so uh mr phillips mr demarco uh tanya will get back to you after the board makes a
decision on selecting a date to hear your case and i think even though i know mr phillips you
would rather not have this continued it's going to be rather lengthy i think it's important that
we get as much information from both sides uh because we have a list this afternoon uh and i
don't want to shortcut that and have to come back again anyway so let's set aside one day and there
will be no interference about other cases you can proceed both of you can proceed with your arguments
and we'll resolve it hopefully on that day and if i could just say one thing just because i want to
clarify mr de marco i mean we have had two days of hearings he did rest his case in chief so this
is just for the city and uh the property owner to um make legal arguments in defense of um the
understood understood but he may have some uh you know we you know we may want to comment on what
your testimony is and it's going to go back and forth so let's just pick a date a special date
there will be no interference with other cases on that day thank you mr chairman i will certainly
uh make myself available whenever as quickly as possible so as not to unduly delay this matter
Tanya, we'll get back to both of you. Thank you.
All right. Do I need to read anything back into the record on this one?
If you could, Chair, just state that it was going to be continued and the date
If you could, Chair, just state that it was going to be continued and the date to be determined.
Okay. MI 2020-001433, 414 South 20th Street is continued to a date to still be selected.
I think. Okay, Chair, so I have Ryan Bolin who wishes to speak to a continuing.
it okay mr poland yes good afternoon ryan boland 1801 market street suite 2300
last name please um b as in boy o l a n d you swearing the firm to tell the truth the whole
truth and nothing but the truth yes i do are you hearing limits livingston street
correct mr chairman you're requesting a continuance i am can i just give you a 30
seconds of background. So this was scheduled as an expedited hearing, but unfortunately
due to inadvertence, we were not assigned an RCO until October 19th, which is just over two weeks
ago. The RCO bent over backwards, scheduled an RCO meeting with us last Thursday. We completed
the meeting. Unfortunately, we just don't have enough time. We want to work out a community
benefits agreement. So we're hoping to have just a very short continuance, if possible,
two weeks so that we can get this community benefits agreement in advance. So I would be
here as attorney moving party requesting a very short continuance. And if I could state, Chair,
it was an error on the administration part. And I explained to Mr. Bolin that I could work with
him and give him whatever date is necessary to move forward with this we'll do an attorney
moving party is that right yes that's fine okay thank you mi2020-001514-2657 livingston street
attorney moving party that was number eight uh confessor on our sheet
that was number eight okay um we have miss meredith ferlinger um who wants to speak to a
continuance mr chairman good afternoon please identify yourself meredith ferlinger f-e-r-l-e-g-e-r
1500 market street suite 3500 e and you're still under oath from earlier today i sure am i do not
of a continuance request i just want to know i am here and ready for 3602 brandywine since zoom
apparently did not feel like letting me in today um okay all right anyone else continuance or
withdrawal i have a fair levy um you can unmute yourself and wait to be sworn in this is sharon
letter miss mr levy is here for the carlisle street case that is on the add-on list
okay it's also listed as number 10 on your hearing list yeah mr levy are you uh requesting a
continuance no not continuous okay so stand by we'll get to your case and then i have stephanie
boggs good afternoon i'm stephanie boggs 1835 market street suite 1400 philadelphia pennsylvania
stephanie i believe we swore you in earlier today not today that was yesterday yesterday i'm sorry
okay uh you're swearing a firm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the truth
Yes, I do. I am not here on a continuance, but I am here for 144501 Woodhaven, MI2020-001384.
We were not able to meet with the coordinating RCO in this matter because they did not schedule a meeting with us.
Our correspondence with them is included within our exhibit packet detailing those efforts.
But we did meet with another community group, the Franklin Mills Advisory Council, at the request of the councilman.
And their letter of support, along with the letter of support from the councilman, is included within our packets as well.
So I would just request that we would be allowed to present this case on the merits.
And we did receive a letter of non-opposition from Councilman O'Neill.
We'll hear that case. Thank you.
Thank you.
All right.
That's it, right?
Which case should we go on with first? Is it Carlisle?
i believe number two right um carlisle is a follow-up hearing so if you would like to go
with that first yeah let's do that one first that's uh am i i'm sorry calendar number three nine six
Calendar number 39608-3248-North Carlisle.
zero eight three two four
And this case was continued, I believe, at the request of the RCO.
That's why we're hearing it today.
Anyone here on 39-3248-North Carlisle?
That's Mr. Levy, who just spoke.
I have promoted him to panelists.
Thank you.
Mr. Levy?
Yeah, that's me.
Okay, please spell your first and last name.
My first name is Ophir, O-F-I-R.
My last name is Levy, L-E-V-Y.
You swear and affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?